In 2015, we welcomed the good news that Bangladesh had graduated from the low-income to low-middle-income status in the World Bank's classification of countries.

Blue economy means extraction of the resources of sea for the growth of an economy. Bangladesh has settled maritime boundary disputes with Myanmar in 2012 and with India in 2014 through an arbitral method. It is estimated that Bangladesh has acquired 118,813 square kilometres of the Bay of Bengal. The areas of resources include 200 nautical miles of exclusive economic zone and over 354 nautical miles of resources on seabed (continental shelf). It is estimated that the resources from the sea of Bangladesh constitute 81 percent of the resources existing in its land territory.

The issues of growing income inequality and unequal distribution of wealth between the rich and the poor have lately gained traction across the west. Oxfam's yearly inequality report serves as the most damning indictment of this rise in disparity. Eighty-two percent of the entire global wealth created last year, the report estimates, went straight into the pockets of the richest one percent of the world's population. The poorest 50 percent, on the other hand, received zero percent of that wealth.

Economists are taking quite a beating these days. Politicians, most of who feel they understand economics, have either maligned

The good news is that mobile phones and alternate banking channels such as agent banking are bringing millions of individuals into the formal financial system, meaning they have bank accounts or mobile money account for the first time. This is important because financial inclusion is crucial in helping people save money for emergencies, get loans to start businesses, and ultimately resulting in an improvement in their overall wellbeing.

Pre-budget discussion for the upcoming fiscal year (2018-19) is going on in the fast track. Even though the Finance Minister will present the budget in parliament after more than a month, business associations are meeting the Chairman of National Board of Revenue (NBR) almost every day.

Sustainable agro supply chain management includes a number of processes such as supply management, production management,

Three years ago, the then president of Uruguay, José Mujica, travelled to Berlin to meet Chancellor Merkel. She had already been in office for 10 years and was well accustomed to receiving Third World leaders seeking monetary assistance to contribute to the development of their countries. If she thought she was about to meet another such leader, she was in for a surprise.

Bangladesh newspapers bring me good news and sometimes not so good ones too. In the latter category, I include accounts of tailbacks, road accidents, power failures, and factory fires.

The pace at which renewable energy including solar and wind is being developed worldwide suggests that these will overtake the fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal) as dominant sources in power generation in a shorter time frame than previously forecasted. In mid-1990s renowned energy experts predicted that oil, gas and coal will remain the predominant fuel for power generation until 2030.

Recently, David Pilling had a write-up entitled “Do we need to say RIP (Rest in Peace) to GDP?” The write-up draws on his latest book The Growth Delusion on which he recently spoke at the Oxford Literary Festival.

Bangladesh has successfully met all three criteria for LDC graduation in the first review in March 2018. It is expected that Bangladesh will be able to meet the graduation criteria in the second review in 2021 and will finally graduate from the LDC status in 2024.

I read an interesting article the other day about a cotton spinning company based in Manchester, England. Although the company, by Bangladesh's standards, produces high volumes of product, it has established a niche for itself in the UK and Japan with customers who appreciate both quality and locality of resource.

The global economy is experiencing a multitude of transitions in terms of economic and geopolitical rebalancing, ongoing technological change and emerging social and political risks. These transitions are expected to have far-reaching impacts on Bangladesh's economy, which is becoming increasingly integrated with the global and regional economies.

Bangladesh will cross a number of milestones during its implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Bangladesh has become eligible for LDC graduation at the triennial review of the Committee for Development Policy (CDP) held in March 2018 by meeting the thresholds for graduation: Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, the Human Assets Index (HAI) and the Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). Bangladesh has been able to satisfy all the three graduation criteria and that also with significant comfort margins.

The outlook for the United Nations' (UN) list of least developed countries (LDCs) is finally looking optimistic after 47 years of lacklustre performance since the category's establishment in 1971. There have been 52 inclusions and only five graduations to date according to the UN Committee for Development Policy's (CDP) triennial reviews. Bangladesh, an LDC, remains on track for graduation.

The government of Bangladesh has recently formed a new wage board for the readymade garment (RMG) industry where 4.4 million workers are currently employed. There are around 45 industrial sectors in our country, each with its own set minimum wage. This means that there is no national minimum wage.

The national development discourse in Bangladesh often mistakenly considers graduating from the Least Developed Country (LDC) category and becoming a middle-income country (MIC) as interchangeable. Senior-level policymakers continue to express their aspiration for the country to join the middle-income group by 2021, which marks the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh's independence.

Remarkable growth experience and development of the East Asian countries (South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong) during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s led to the emergence of the discourse of “East Asian Development Model.”